Personal data theft is a pandemic, a factor that drove the EU to shift control of personal data away from international businesses into the hands of its own citizens. Toward that end, this past May it enacted GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

An IBM Security study found that the average cost of a data breach globally is $3.86 million, a 6.4 percent increase from the 2017 report. This year for the first time, the 2018 Cost of a Data Breach Study also calculated the costs associated with "mega breaches", projecting that these breaches cost companies between $40 million and $350 million respectively.